Questions are what keep the mind learning. If there were no questions then that would mean that people would know everything there is to know in the entire scope of reality. Now we know that is not the case because we pose questions to people and ourselves everyday. I was told, from a very early age, that the only stupid question is a question not asked, and I believe that philosophy works for me even to this day. Questions can be very confusing if not asked in the right way or manner. What is the right way to ask a question to a group of students? Well the answer is not a simple one but there are a few things we as educators can do to help us get our question phrased so students are engaged.
What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher? There are a lot of things that one needs to know in order to ask a question effectively. We need to know the goals of the questions we are asking. If we only give students yes or no questions are we really stimulating the mind of a student? There are ways to get a great question and get the students minds stimulated. One technique is to ask a question wait 3 seconds and then call on a student at random. The theory is that the students do not know who is going to be called on and therefor start thinking about the answer they want to give. How we phrase our questions can be a good way of getting students to be involved. Another way of getting students involved is by putting a question on the board at the beginning of class and having students think on the question throughout the class.
For further help on how to ask questions the right way I will provide links to websites that have strategies.
The right way to ask questions in a classroom
Asking questions to improve learning
Three ways to ask better questions in the clasroom
Asking better questions in the classroom
Questioning styles and strategies
Constant questioning helps students to expand their thinking.
ReplyDeleteYou included links at the bottom of the post, but a better idea would be to write about what you learned from each post specifically and briefly summarize each video.
I love the philosophy that there are no stupid questions. So many teachers, and people in general, do not think like that anymore. It is very discouraging when I hear a teacher tell a student that they have asked a stupid question. You can't expect students to know everything, and there is no reason to embarrass them when they don't know.
ReplyDelete